29
votes
Accepted
Is Sherlock Holmes religious?
The single strongest piece of evidence is surely this, from A Naval Treaty:
"Thank you. I have no doubt I can get details from Forbes. The authorities are excellent at amassing facts, though ...
- 841
26
votes
Accepted
Was Paradise Lost the first major work of literature to give "sympathy for the devil"?
As asked, the question is difficult to answer. Several premises are open to question:
What constitutes a "major work"?
What is your definition of "sympathy" in this context?
...
- 21.1k
21
votes
Is Judaism represented in the Narnia books?
Note: This does not in ANY WAY represent my own religious views.
It's possible that C.S. Lewis meant for the Dwarfs to represent the Jews. At the end of The Last Battle, the Dwarfs refused to be '...
- 23.2k
21
votes
Accepted
What is the foundation of the religion in Watership Down?
In-universe
El-ahrairah is much more legendary than mythical, more like a hero than a god. Here's how the text describes him the very first time his name appears:
What Robin Hood is to the English ...
- 70.6k
20
votes
Accepted
Was Shakespeare a religious fanatic?
I don't believe it would be right to call him a religious fanatic. His plays contain both pro- and anti-Christian elements, all of which seem to be more about playing into the sense of the times than ...
- 5,018
15
votes
Was Rand al'Thor supposed to be a symbol for Jesus?
From an interview here:
Q: How much of Jesus Christ is there in Rand? We have the wounded palms, side wound, crown of swords... How representational of Jesus Christ is Rand?
ROBERT JORDAN: ...
- 4,344
13
votes
Did the Lord of the Flies have any kind of religious reference more specific than just the Devil?
The entire book can be seen as an allegory for the Bible. It has a startlingly large number of allusions to Jewish and Christian myths and stories. Here are some of them:
The island, in the ...
- 4,344
13
votes
Accepted
Was Dostoyevsky atheist or Christian?
Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoyevsky, author of such works as Crime and Punishment and The Brothers Karamazov, was a devout Orthodox Catholic from a very young age. He is reported to have, at a young age, ...
- 6,005
12
votes
Accepted
Is Deeper Magic something more than God (the Emperor beyond the Sea) in Narnia?
First we need to understand what the "Deep Magic" is/represents, before moving to the "Deeper Magic." We know from chapter 13 of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe that the Deep Magic is written ...
- 2,042
12
votes
Why is Christopher Marlowe considered an atheist?
TLDR:
1 - Marlow was not an atheist in the modern sense.
2- Dr Faustus is not as clearly religious as it first appears
Let's start by pointing out that "atheism" doesn't necessarily stop an ...
- 20.8k
11
votes
Accepted
Does the Abrahamic God exist in the Cthulhu Mythos?
Not in the mythos as Lovecraft conceived it
It is hard to prove a negative: there is no categorical statement in Lovecraft's oeuvre that definitively rejects the Abrahamic God. Even if there was, ...
- 20.8k
10
votes
Was Shakespeare a religious fanatic?
Like most English people until well into the twentieth century, Shakespeare was baptized into the Anglican church, but it does not follow that he was himself any more religious than the average ...
- 21.1k
9
votes
Accepted
Does The Chronicles of Narnia promote deism?
Although Aslan was more of an immediate presence to Narnia than the
Emperor, he and his father worked in perfect unity. The Emperor was
often referred to as "Aslan's great Father, the Emperor-over-...
- 1,903
8
votes
Which flood story was first: Genesis or The Epic of Gilgamesh?
Walther Sallaberger's book Das Gilgamesch-Epos. Mythos, Werk und Tradition (C. H. Beck, 2008) discusses the flood story
mainly in the context of the Standard Babylonian version of the Gilgamesh Epic. ...
- 43.8k
8
votes
Accepted
What religion is suggested by the "God" in the Korean sun/moon origin story?
You don't know how funny it is to read this. This requires both cultural knowledge of Korea as well as the language.
The "Heavenly Lord" or in this context is formally called Haneulnim (하늘님, ...
- 2,216
7
votes
Did the Lord of the Flies have any kind of religious reference more specific than just the Devil?
Existing answers have covered a few of these concepts, but there was plenty of Christian iconography apart from the devil who promoted evil among mankind.
The island itself, particularly Simon's ...
- 846
7
votes
What is the theology of Little Women?
The only thing that stands out to me with regard to the concept of the Trinity is from Little Men:
When it ceased at last, and Mrs. Bhaer went to take away the lamp, Demi was gone and Nat fast asleep,...
- 401
6
votes
Did the Lord of the Flies have any kind of religious reference more specific than just the Devil?
The allusions mentioned above are true in some regard; although, some clarity could be made about the Christian idea of sin. Christianity affirms that each individual has the choice of, even the ...
- 61
5
votes
Is Sherlock Holmes religious?
He is possibly (most likely) Catholic.
Let's look at some extracts:
The Gloria Scott - dog bit his ankle 'as I went down to chapel' - chapel typically a catholic word in English
The Crooked Man - ...
- 6,198
5
votes
Is Deeper Magic something more than God (the Emperor beyond the Sea) in Narnia?
A few thoughts here:
First, it's actually a little more subtle than to say that Narnia is a strict allegory. C. S. Lewis's intent (and some people, such as @Hamlet, would argue that that's not really ...
5
votes
Is religion still an important factor in the world of Fahrenheit 451?
It isn't, at least not in the form we know it. The society presented in the book is one of leisure, easily consumed entertainment and carelessnes. Any thoughtprovoking material (i.e. books, especially ...
- 252
5
votes
Accepted
How does Emeth's presence in Aslan's Country in The Last Battle fit in with the rest of C. S. Lewis's theology?
C. S. Lewis can be fairly described as a Christian Inclusivist – he believed that Christianity was true, but was not willing to claim that only "Christians" would be saved.
This is different from ...
- 2,042
5
votes
Does 'In a Grove' assume that dead people don't lie?
Personally, I have not found any early 20th century Japanese literary work that has the notion of "the dead don't lie".
One would assume that dead people do not lie because they lack such ...
- 51
5
votes
Why did Hamlet tell Ophelia: "Get thee to a nunnery!"?
Readers who think that Hamlet is sincerely expressing his own thoughts and feelings in this scene tend to interpret his cruelty to Ophelia as arising out of his disgust with his mother Gertrude for ...
- 51.8k
5
votes
Accepted
Why is the town called "Trinity"?
The town of Trinity is, according to the Fandom Wiki based on the real location of Oberlin, Ohio
Oberlin was founded by two Presbyterian ministers as
a community of church-centered families who ...
- 18.4k
4
votes
Accepted
Does C. S. Lewis support annihilationism in The Last Battle?
I don't have the book in front of me right now, but Aslan makes it clear in The Magician's Nephew that animals could go back to being "dumb" beasts. In fact, there are several examples of this in the ...
4
votes
"I've seen your flag on the marble arch"
In an article in Haaretz, Elon Gilad and Ruth Schuster write:
The “marble arch” may allude to Titus’ Victory Arch in Rome, a
monument celebrating the Roman final victory over the Jews. If so,
...
- 3,171
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